The field of the invention relates generally to aircraft electrical power generating and distribution systems and more specifically, to a method and system for reducing a potential for a high pressure turbine stall.
At least some known aircraft are driven by two or more high bypass ratio turbofan engines. These engines include a fan driven by a low pressure spool that provides a significant fraction of the overall propulsion system thrust. A high pressure spool drives one or more compressors, and produces additional thrust by directing exhaust products in an aft direction.
In addition to providing thrust to propel the aircraft, and powering the aircraft hydraulic and pneumatic systems, the engines provide electrical power to many aircraft components, including the environmental control system, aircraft computers, hydraulic motor pumps, and/or other motors and electrical devices. One approach to obtaining electrical power from the aircraft engines is to convert some of the rotational mechanical power from the engine to electrical power.
Newer aircraft have smaller engines with more limitations on the high pressure spool power extraction to avoid stalls. Also, the newer aircraft are designed with more electrical loads. Under certain conditions, such as, but not limited to, during the descend condition, sufficient power from the high pressure spool may not be available to support the electrical loads without stalling the compressor. Because the engine stall problem is a relatively new problem, there have been limited attempts to solve it.